Westward ho: New SEC geography signals change

by Ed Daniels

By Ed Daniels
Clarion Herald

Every year, it is a sure sign that football season approaches.

But, this year, instead of making the ride east for SEC media days, we went west.

Welcome to the Southeastern Conference, Texas and Oklahoma.

As we stood in line at a Dallas hotel to check in, a friend, who spent years in the NFL, lamented to a reporter that things just weren’t the same. The endless crusade for cash had diminished the NFL and was doing the same to major college football.

I understand the sentiment. It is a belief shared by many.

But, as we rolled up Interstate 49 to make the left on I-20 to head to Dallas, I felt nothing but anticipation.

College football is getting bigger, and bigger.

That’s why ESPN and ABC agreed to a 10-year deal with the SEC for more than five times what CBS had been paying, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Things change. Nothing stays the same. And, in a rapidly changing world, college football and college sports are part of that sweeping change.

Here at SEC media days, Alabama had a new head coach for the first time since 2007. Nick Saban retired, and Alabama reloaded, hiring Kalen DeBoer from Washington.

DeBoer could have stayed at Washington forever, especially after coaching the Huskies to the national championship game six months ago.

But, the lure of coaching at Alabama – the chance to climb the tallest mountain in college football – was just too much to pass up.

DeBoer is betting on himself, knowing that instead of being comfortable out west, he is in a cauldron in the South. The comparisons with Saban are inevitable, and they will be more severe if he does not reach expectations that are out of sight.

But, if he does? He is a pure legend.

How compelling is that?

At LSU, Brian Kelly starts his third season, with a quarterback with one college start and a defense that has to be rebuilt after a terrible 2023.

LSU will be picked behind Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, and maybe even Missouri, in the SEC media preseason poll.

Yet, Kelly appears energized by what’s ahead, even without Jayden Daniels.

Ole Miss has scored in the transfer portal, and starting quarterback Jaxson Dart is likely a seven-figure signal caller in name, image and likeness.

At a place that is a perennial underdog, Ole Miss is no longer viewed in the same prism.
Can the Rebels make the heavy lift?

Then, there’s Texas and Oklahoma. Since news leaked that they were joining the SEC, the chatter about the two schools suddenly competing with the big boys in the SEC has not abated.

It has only gotten louder.

Are Texas and Oklahoma that good or have they feasted in a league not nearly as good as the one they enter?

In the meantime, the old college football model – with head coach in control and players having to sit out a year if they transfer – is long gone.

The entire model has been blown up.

But, I will still be watching.

Won’t you?

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